The Testament Of Sister New Devil Season 1 Review

There were a couple of anime releases in January from Madman Entertainment that fell into the fanservice harem genre. We recently reviewed Maken-Ki and are back to review the much anticipated home release of The Testament Of Sister New Devil. If you had to pick one of the two this month, this would be the one I’d be telling you to get. Fair warning though, this series pushes the boundaries of it’s R rating with some of it’s sexual theme’s. But if you’re looking for a new anime to watch with an interesting story line combined with over the top sexual encounters keep on reading.

The Testament Of Sister New Devil follows the life of Basara Tojo, a high-school student who in the opening moments of the first episode learns that his father is re-marrying and he will soon be the step brother to two new sisters. At this point I thought the series was going to be your run of the mil harem series packed with explicit sexual scenes that the front cover of the series warned me about. But thankfully I was wrong.

Minor Plot Spoilers Below

By the end of the first episode’s plot twist, one which I didn’t see coming, it is revealed that the two sisters are more than we first thought Mio is actually the daughter of the recently deceased demon lord Wilbert and Maria is a succubus and guardian of princess Mio. If that wasn’t enough of a twist we then find out that Basara and his father are exiles of the ‘Hero clan’ a group of villagers tasked with observing and if need be, eliminating those of the Demon clan.

End of Plot Spoilers

After the ending of the second episode I found myself quite hooked on the show. Not because of the explicitly sexual story thread that begins in that second episode that has a bleeding effect throughout the rest of the series but because I was actually invested in this storyline between the two rival clans and the characters that make up each side. Being completely honest, these types of shows don’t generally have the greatest of storyline because the focus is normally on the fanservice, and that is fine as there is a time and place for that type of show and are often great relief for anime fans to watch in between the many darker, serious anime series. I was pleasantly surprised that The Testament Of Sister New Devil manages to, for the most part maintain a great balance between an engaging story and the sexual fanservice scenes.

Standouts

Besides the interesting storyline, The Testament Of Sister New Devil should be praised for it’s high quality animation. Animation studio Production IMS have done a great job creating the series and maintaining a consistent quality standard throughout the whole series in both the slice of life moments and the high intensity battles that occur between the two clans. There were a small number of times where a few frames or scenes would have a dip in quality, mainly with character designs but it would likely not be noticed by the majority of viewers and doesn’t detract from the overall experience.

The series has a very vibrant colour pallete that is very nice on the eyes especially during fight scenes involving the magic spells. The character designs also feature very vibrant colours and are each quite varied design wise, this really helps differentiate each of them as their own unique character and assists the viewer in getting to know and remember who each one is.

Has A Devilish Side

Although the animation and overall story is great The Testament Of Sister New Devil is not without some flaws. Some of the ecchi moments cross that line of what is sexy and tread into the uncomfortable territory, especially when certain characters decide they need to sexually moan the word ‘brother’ during their lewd acts. Now it’s likely there is a large market for incestual fetishes out there but it’s not my thing at all and found a few of those scenes went on too long, slowing down the pacing of the episode and made the scene awkward rather than sexy.

The script at times is also cringe worthy, in both the sexual and regular conversation moments. I went back and watched a large portion of the series in it’s Japanese subtitled format for this review after completing the English version and it’s not any better. I will give props to Funimation for their English localisation, as it was spot on, with much of the script being almost word for word accurate to the Japanese version. So don’t think it is let down script wise by a bad dub, they made the best of what they were given to work with.

The Madman home release contains the full 12 episode first season along with the OVA episode ‘The Hard, Sweet Daily Life of Tojo Basara’ and is completely uncensored. Not blurred out white lights here. Episodes are available in both the English dubbed and Japanese subtitled versions. In terms of extra’s there isn’t really anything of mention here, just some trailers for other recent Funimation releases. But it’s an all round solid release and contains a nicely designed case and disc artwork.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed The Testament Of Sister New Devil more than I thought I would. I went in blind, not knowing anything about the series beforehand and was pleasantly surprised that it managed to shock me a number of times with it’s plot twists and walked a balanced line between the sexy ecchi moments and the story of the series. While it does have it’s share of sexual moments that are more awkward than sexy and a script that is laughable at serious times it is held up by it’s great cast of characters and quality animation. It definitely has me interested in watching more, let’s hope that Madman Entertainment release the second season The Testament Of Sister New Devil Burst sometime this year.

A DVD review copy was provided by Madman Entertainment for our The Testament Of Sister New Devil Review.